Last week I had a conversation with three male colleagues about why women are thought to be less intelligent than men. It started when one of them was talking about employment of women in Saudi Arabia. Also how women invaded the labor market in general & how they decreased men’s opportunities to get jobs. While – in their opinion- women should be taking care of their homes, because they’re not as intelligent as men & women as one of them stated tafheen which means in Arabic insignificant or empty minded.

I got heated up; I just couldn’t bear being inferiorly looked at. But no matter how I tried to talk to them, they stuck to their points of view. Here’s what I told them in addition to some ideas came to my mind as I was writing this.

If you go back in time, when there was slavery. African people were captivated, suppressed & they couldn’t do anything but serve their masters. For example in the United States where some slavery took place. After it became illegal, African Americans were not allowed to sit in the same place where white people existed. They weren’t allowed to go to same schools white people went to. This made a big gap between the white race development & that of black race.

If you tried to search in history for scientists, you’ll find that the number of dark-skinned ones is nothing compared to other scientists. If you are focusing on what I’m saying you’ll find it very relevant to women’s intelligence issue. Women’s job for years was not more than being a housewife, a person who does nothing but cleaning, raising her kids & making food for the family. For centuries women had no right to do anything except that.

So, you’ll find African Americans well-built with strong bodies because that’s what the race grew upon. And you’ll find women great in housework, up till now. It’s not because African Americans are stupid, but that’s the development they had, by serving & working their butts off. Same thing applies for women.

Studies proved that the average IQ of men & women is equivalent. They reached the conclusion that:

Since I am not much of a feminist, I will do my best to be as objective as I possibly can.
This is a faulty argument; you can’t use this analogy to support your idea. For me it relates more to specialization than to inferiority. Men can perform some jobs whereas women can excel in others. The issue has never been (Intelligence); no one can claim that men are cleverer or more intelligent than women. Hence your research support is also invalid, you don’t need to be intelligent to work and the clearest evidence is that many stupid men are working and in some cases the lead more intelligent employees. For me it’s just a matter of a religious belief. This is God’s purpose behind creating different sexes; each has different characteristics that qualify for some tasks in life.

The theory I came up with based on the issue of black people tells it all. When they took the opportunity to do something, they became scientists & now reached the presidency. Women didn’t have the chance to develop just like them. But now, women can work everything, absolutely everything just not in our countries (Arab).

And yes I don’t need to be intelligent to work in any job, but people think women don’t have the intelligence to perform in jobs in which men can, although studies has proven we rock in multitasking. You can’t deny the fact that a wide range of people specially in our country, think women are inferior, it is about being looked down at, thinking that women are created to give birth & raise kids. That’s not true, we have emotional intelligence, that doesn’t mean we lack other types of it.

You can never compare women to black people ( in America ) women are not a minority,and what is more, they (blacks) do have their own countries where they can excel in any field if they want. the analogy is flawed.
( You just need to get rid of the feeling of female inferiority 😉 )

hmmmmmmmm,
okay reem u r right in some points , but i think that men not more intelligence than women but have more ability to do work,they exert more work than that women can so they appear and their intelligence appears , but how is more intelligence women or men i can answer u with(“ناقصات عقل ودين”)

Let’s get right to the point.
1- No biological evidence that men are smarter than women.
2- No evidence from religion that women are less smart than men.
3- Women can do almost everything (they’ve enough power to be soldiers as we can see them in the American army). In life, you can be
4- No evidence from history that women can’t do anything and be so successful.

BUT, let’s say that women should have their jobs – it doesn’t sound logic to drop females in the army – and the same for men, too.

No it didn’t affect their IQ, it just affected their development. Just as when you start a race with someone, a person holds you back & hinders you from starting while the other did long time before you, then you start when the road is clear & try your best to cut the same distance & even reach him, with some pushes, acceptance & motivation, we’re doing it . We are equal, the gap was made up by us, the whole human race.

That would be true if men are going in constant steps .. I believe that people in our decade are smarter than people in the one before, and that is applied on men and women so that gap is constant.
I’m still watching the video of Mohamed Selim El Awa and I’ll comment on it after watching.

You are joking right? I have raised five daughters, who are all now in their 20’s! Do you have any idea of just how smart you have to be to do that properly? Women are excellent multi-taskers because they have to be able to hold everything together. You try being a mother and looking after the housekeeping. It is stressful and very hard work.
Personally I believe that men have their skills and women have theirs but each can do the other’s work IF THEY SO CHOOSE! It is the choice and the freedom to do so which is most important. It is not really about intelligence as there are an equal number of really unintelligent men in control of our world right now!!!
Intelligence is individual, whether you are male of female. Much of what we see is the result of limiting beliefs around gender roles. If we were allowed, as people, to pursue the dreams of our souls and hearts then there would be no arguments about who is cleverer than who because we would all be doing what was right for us and the world would be a better place.
But Reem has the right idea and she questions everything. And that… is very intelligent! Good for you Reem.

Intelligence: “(1) the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations : reason; also : the skilled use of reason. (2) the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria”
– as in Meriam-Webster’s dictionary

والذَّكاءُ سُرْعة الفِطْنَة – لسان العرب

Intelligence, as in the above meanings, doesn’t seem confined to a specific gender or ethnicity.

A woman/female being referred to as insignificant, is nonsense, both religiously and ethically. Men and Women, each can’t live on their own .. and we’re created different to complement each other and for each to excel in his own way.

Women being a bit more emotionally driven -and driving-, by nature (الفطرة، وليس العادة), is not an attribute to degrade, no single human-being should degrade or break.

I have no idea what are you all talking about! Is this really the issue?! who is more intelligent? lol
My question is would you post the same article if you were raised and living in an European country for example?! If your answer is No, then why do you think you have posted it here?! There is something behind that! and before we discuss who is more intelligent or who is superior or whoever has a better IQ results, you should first discuss the reason behind that way of thinking, and how can it be solved or in other words, correct the current view upon women!!!! 😉

I am an Irish woman but I live in England, (and sometimes in Luxor,) and this issue is still a problem here! Women are still not deemed ‘valuable enough’ to pay equal wages to, even though they work the same jobs as men etc.
They are still seen as second class citizens, because they have children, and are still being abused by a nation of misogynists! Women might ‘look’ freer here but it is an illusion. They are just slaves in a different way! Women here have many freedoms but are enslaved none-the-less. I have been an abuse counsellor for 16 years, helping women who have been abused, both as children and adults, by men, and women who have been battered by their husbands. They are not free! It is heart breaking. But these things are still kept secret by a culture who do not really want to see it. Women here are not free.
YET!

LMAO, you see Reem? that is what I am talking about!! Instead of talking about the issue that I am trying to tell and have it discussed, Mr. Loai just ran to google and searched for what? –> “Men are More Intelligent than Women”!! now what are you going to do about that?! we can’t take his focus out of the trivial issue and make him look at the big picture!!

Actually I’m not trying to prove who’s more intelligent than who, I’m only trying to get men who are convinced that women aren’t capable of doing anything, to read the reasons why they think so. I gave reasons, I didn’t prove that women or men are more intelligent.

I believe that women have a much more intelligent but they can not use all of it in only work. So the only reason i may see that women are less efficient is the way they use their mind No more & No less. I have seen lots of women works more than men but too few who is efficient.(Efficiency here means the output of working in the same working hours)
Still just opinion :).